SEO for Bing: What You Should Know

Google controls 65% of the search market and from experience, optimizing your site for any other search engine has been a waste of time. However, Microsoft has launched an $90 million dollar advertising campaign to promote Bing and there are rumors that Bing will power Yahoo! search, so ignoring this new search engine might be a mistake. By taking some simple steps to optimizing your site for Bing, you’ll be ready.

That said, the goal of all search engines is the same: To make it as easy as possible for you to find what you’re looking for. If you’re already optimizing your site for Google, chances are you’ll be fine. However, there are key differences between the two search engines. Here’s a quick list of the things you should focus on when optimizing your site for Bing.

1. Title Tags and Meta Description: Title and description in Bing search results are pulled directly from your page title and meta description.
2. Anchor Text: Anchor text matters. Anchor text on the site links come from the anchor text on your internal pages. Optimize for this feature by optimizing the anchor text for the links on your site.
3. Alt Text: Optimize image and video alt text . This is very important for image and video search in all engines.
4. Quick Preview: When you hover over the search results, a preview window appears with a more detailed description and some other useful information including any contact information and internal links.
5. Customer Ratings: Bing results include integrated ratings from Yelp, Judysbook and CitySearch . If this affects you, make sure your site is listed.
6. Local Search: Local search results on Bing Maps can be managed in the Listing Center. Make sure your site is listed and that the information is accurate. Bing allows you to provide a lot of information about your business, so take advantage of this feature.

There’s a lot more to Bing but I think if you do some basic optimization, you’ve done enough until Bing really starts increasing its share of the market.

Tagged as: Bing, Microsoft, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO